TO P. B. AXELROD

Written:Written on November 16, 1900Published:First published in 1925 inLenin Miscellany III.

      Sent from Munich to Zurich.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages53-54.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

November 16

Ihave just received, dear P. B., your remarks on the
article “The Urgent
Tasks”.[1]Many thanks. What do you
think about the unpopularity of this article? It won’t sound
discordant, will it?

Ienclose the preface to the pamphletMay Day
Demonstrations in Kharkov(some, but very small, corrections
were made in the manuscript you have). Please, let’s hear
what you think of it, and do not hesitate to make your
remarks on it, in ink or in pencil.

Iam also sending you a document received from Russia
about the amalgamation of the St. Petersburg Workers’
Organisation and the League of
Struggle.[2]They say the
St. Petersburg people are terribly proud of it, and Kiev
is said to have adopted the programme already. It must be
written about. Would you like to do so? (After reading
this “document”—this “specimen”, as my brother calls
it—please send it on to G. V., if you don’t need it.)

Wehave at last found a responsible editor. Ettinger has
undertaken to sign two numbers in any case, giving up
all claims about the “tone”, etc., and reserving the right
after these two issues to make a statement in the press about
her disagreement with the content, and so forth. Let us
hope that she will keep to this condition (she only asks very
earnestly that we should say nothing about it to anyone
until publication), and in the meantime we shall either
find someone else, or make other
arrangements.[3]I
personally negotiated with Ettinger with the aid of
Buchholtz, whoresigned from the Unionfor the purpose of takingsome steps in the spirit of conciliation. I shall write in more
detail about these steps later, considering that there is
little of interest in them.

Wenow hope to begin setting in a few days.

Withall good wishes,Yours,Petroff

[1]Lenin’sarticle, “The Urgent Tasks of Our Movement”, was
published as an editorial inIskraNo. 1, in December 1900 (see present
edition, Vol. 4, pp. 366–71).

[2]Areference to the Programme of the St. Petersburg League of
Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and the
Charter of the Allied Workers’ Organisation. The propositions
set out in the documents served as a basis for agreement on the
merger of these organisations in the autumn of 1900.

[3]Onthe reverse of the title page ofZarya’s first issue was the
following inscription: “Verantwortlich für die Redaktion: K. Fentz
in Stuttgart” (Responsible Editor: K. Fentz in Stuttgart).

K.Fentz—Y. S. Ettinger, a Social-Democrat, who joinedIskrain 1900, a member of the League of Russian RevolutionarySocial-Democracy Abroad; she subsequently sided with the
Mensheviks.